The present invention relates to a control lever mechanism, such as a speed control lever for an infinitely variable transmission (IVT).
Production John Deere 20 Series tractors with an IVT include a speed control lever with a rotary wheel, and such a control lever assembly for an IVT is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,404,187, issued in 2002 to Dieter Ruckert. In this control lever assembly, the rotary wheel is mounted near the upper end of a lever housing. The wheel projects laterally from a side of the housing and is rotatable about a substantially horizontal axis which is transverse with respect to an axis of the lever. The housing must be large enough to allow an operator's hand to grip the housing in the area below the wheel and so that the operator's thumb can manipulate the wheel. But, such a large control lever assembly will be too large for use in more compact control modules, such as an armrest control console.